Former Soviet official executed for bribe-taking

A former Soviet deputy minister was executed for taking bribes, the Communist Party newspaper Pravda said in an article warning corrupt officials they would get no leniency. The article said former Deputy Fisheries Minister Vladimir Rytov was shot after being sentenced by the Supreme Court. The execution of Mr. Rytov, the highest-level Soviet official to get the death sentence in many years , was clearly linked to a scandal that broke two years ago involving the smuggling to the West of vast quantities of caviar.